Nutz About Bolts Prius Maintenance Videos

@NutzAboutBolts will you also change the piston and rings? I don't remember if yours burn oil or not.

 

Might not… it’s my working car so I might just have the head resurface at a machine shop if it’s out of specs. Hopefully I caught the misfire in time before it caused a bent rod. So far there isn’t coolant in the oil because it didn’t look milky. So far I’m not half way there yet. Will resume tomorrow.

 

Thanks for the dedication to our PRius community. The head is not know to wrap in Prius. The new redesign head gasket should has less problem. Car Care Nut has video on CT200h, He removed the inverter to give him more room.

 

that’s good to know, I’ve been reading up on some people here sanding the head down with 1000 and 1500 grit wet sand paper. I’m wondering if I can get away with just cleaning the head and block with a green pad to get rid of the old gasket and carbon and lay a new headgasket on… but I’ve also read how sensitive the head is if the gap is out of spec that it’ll cause issues in the future again…

 

Since you caught it early, and will be changing it soon, it's doubtful the head if warped.
Clean it and check it with a straight edge. Most importantly between cylinders....

 

yep, I got a straight edge and a feeler gauge

Maximum thickness seems a lot, so we’ll see where my feeler gauge goes to.

 

I did mine at 301,000. It knocked twice, I wasn't really sure if it was loosing coolant.
Until a day or two later. And it was very minor. But I knew.

Once I cleaned the old gasket off, I couldn't even see light between cylinders.
I just turned 371,000 miles last week.... Coolant was still at the same mark when I changed it
at 350,000. And it's still the same at the same place since replacement.

 

mine misfire the first time it knock and I resented the cel, then I drove it another 400 miles before the knocking got worst with loss of coolant and then I decommissioned it lol. Hopefully it’s not too late

did you just clean your head? You didn’t wet sand it?

 

That's about what I did.... Highway miles, mostly.
I used a razorblade to clean it, then superfine steel wool.
I had one valve, exhaust I believe, on the #4 cylinder just seeping wd40 after 15-20 minutes.
I decided to re-seat all the valves, since I was replacing the valve guide seals anyways.
And of course I cleaned off the all the carbon from the valve chamber and intake and exhaust ports.

I also cleaned off the piston heads. Intake manifold, cooler, egr valve.....
I had forgotten to connect the connector on the manifold, so I got an error code when I started it.
It didn't run so smooth. I only ran it for few seconds. But after I connected it, it ran smooth after
several seconds....

 

what compression tool did you use to compress the valve stem springs? Did you replace the springs too or just the stem oil seal?
My head gasket kit came with the stem oil seals too. Looking at the manual the exhaust and intake has different color seals specific for it.

 

Usually we only change the stem seals and nothing else are replaced in the head. Gasket Master recommend Felpro for the head gasket, he claimed it has thicker lips on the edge around the cylinder.

 

any valve stem tool you recommend?
I bought my kit from the dealership, costed 302$ and came with a bunch of gaskets, including the stem seals

 

All my valve seals were the same color, if I remember correctly. Did you get the FULL kit? It will come with the crank shaft
seal also, and a few others, I forget what they were. I had to buy them separately, which cost more.

You will need a SMALLER valve spring compressor. Mine was for larger valves. I had a washer that
I was able to use to compress the springs to get the keepers out. The springs are small.
Be careful, my compressor slipped and one keeper shot off. After removing everything on my porch,
Then putting things back, I found it on my metal ladder!

 

I just watched a video on how they lap the valves and cleaned it up… I don’t think I got enough time for all of that, I think I’m just gonna send it out and pay the 150$ for them to change the seals, lap the valves and maybe resurface the head if it needs to be. I need to get this car up and running soon

 

$150 is not bad for that work!

 

Smart move